I heard the same from a reliable source. Also heard the coach from last years team (not sure of his name) was fired because of it. Basketball Alberta has enough issues right now, so I am guessing this will be swept under the rug as quickly as possible.

Hadn't heard that but could be Otas and (insert any team mates name here) had a scrap.

A more probable situation would be that Eddie Richardson (Genesis) is running a team into July and Ellis would see that as a better opportunity,lots of the previous Alberta players have decided to play on that Genesis team and not play for Team AB this year.

What's happening with Team AB aleast the U17 Boys is bigger than one player, it rests in the hands of the decision makers. I support the philosophy of the program but the methodology being excersized has me baffled. YES Club Teams and Programs are making it difficult for Team AB to field a team that can actually compete for a Championship, but what do you expect especially when the Coaches and leaders of these club programs have the ability to relate to most of our most talented players and their families to get them to play; meanwhile Team AB seems to be moving in the opposite direction by hiring coaches that has previously coached the U17's and did. I mean I think Coach Stevens is a good guy but good guys dont neccessary translate into being able to sell kids on his track record to produce wins and most importantly IMPROVE every player on the roster mentally as well as physically. Team AB needs to fight fire with fire by going out identifying, recruiting a true Coach that can enter the program convince the best talent to play, immplement a system that the players can use their strentghs, a coach that can motivate players as well as make game adjustments and put Team AB back in the hunt for gold medals NOT being satisfied with placing 5, 6 or 7th.

I saw this team play under Coach Stevens a couple of times and let me tell you, its sad. The system they run is predicated on 3pt shooting but not one of them are consistent shooters. They litterally get no penetration, have no point guard, and they are very softt. In addition and probably the most disturbing thing was coach Stevens. He literally stood their with his arms crossed and basically said nothing. Hell he didnt even sub as his assisntant coach was in charge of subbing and from what i saw this assistant coach had no idea how to sub as the team could never get any flow. This isnt the States whereas you can hire a legit assistant coach that has head coaching experience and therefore you can trust that he or she knows what they are doing. I bet this guy has never even played the game.

Team AB is losing steam and respect from the citizens of Alberta on a anual basis and they need to turn it around. They need to make a bold move and get someone in the driver's seat that can actually coach, not just stand there smile with his arms folded like he's Phil Jackson and he has 11 rings.

Tough start for The U17 boys at the Canada Games as they lost to both New Brunswick and PEI. Sadly these boys are undermanned as many of the best players in the province are not involved in the program. Some troubling decisions this year as they cut a handful of kids this year that have been involved in the program for 3 years only to be left out in favour of some 1997 boys and some boys new to the program. The story from BA has always been building toward this year for the Canada Games but they forgot to tell the new coach. That was part of the reason a kid like Matt Ellis didn't play - and he is hands down the best big man in the province at the U17 level. He started last year for this team. Another starter from last year, Darian Smigorosky out of JP in Edmonton is on the team again buy only got 5 minutes in game one and 7 minutes in game 2 at the Games - for some reason not even in the mix and one of the strongest all around players in AB. The lack of coaching continuity clearly a problem for the program but also communication with the coaches starting with some feedback from prior years. Hope they can figure it out soon - a nice bunch of players at the U15 level who I would hope they would like to keep interested in the program. Here's hoping the current team can bounce back in the placing round of the Games.

How did our U17 team go zero and three? They look so much better than the results they put up this week. We weren't even playing Ontario, Quebec, or BC. If I am reading the schedule correctly, the best we can place is 10th, and that's if we can beat BC? Am I right? Has Alberta EVER placed this low before? I feel for the players and coaches. Basketball Alberta has to do something to rectify this. What is the issue? Did we not get the best players? Was it just a down year in talent? There is no way the showcase team in our province can be this poor!

u16 not much better. Same problem as u17 team, enough talent but can't get it together. Basketball Alberta running our rep into the ground this year. We need coaches with some fire and we need true point guards who are unselfish and will actually pass the ball and run fast break as opposed to throwing up 3's with time still on the clock!

Subject: Let's not lose sight on the long term goal Wed Aug 07, 2013 1:02 pm

I first want to say good job U17 boys for coming back today and making the most out of a unfortunate situation. Our game today against the NWT showed we are more than capable of competing at these games and just unfortunately started off slow. I mean we held the NWT to 17 points for the game which shows when focused and on the same page we can shut down anyone. Our coaches deserve more credit they are asked to field a team in a very limited amount of time and expected to have them playing at a very high level in a matter of weeks. I think if our teams were allowed more time we would of seen more of the performance showed against the NWT and would have definitely been competing for a medal. Even with all this there has been some definite bright spots on the team particularly the play of the south kids but again this doesn't surprise me (We should of taken more south kids no disrespect Edmonton and Calgary) as I think these kids are most prepared to compete based on your leagues and systems we play. Boys lets finish off strong regroup and get ready for the next games where I am sure we will do better than 10th.

The problems with Basketball Alberta are many, this year has just highlighted most of them: there is no glory in playing for this province, it cost families a small fortune, takes most of their summer, while they are driving back and forth, between Edmonton and Calgary, billeting etc, If you are good enough to play at that level you should not have to pay, at all, they should be doing fundraising and sponsorship's at the corporate level, there is a lot of money in this province. Coaching is sub standard to say the least, no consistency from year to year, and no one willing to start running practices and tournaments before June, and the cp program is a joke. They are not visible you never see them outside of Edmonton. And maybe it is not such a good thing for your credibility when you replace at 6'7' post with a 5'8" guard whose father is a board member, who you cut originally, and give them the spot over the red shirts. This team is probably playing to the best of their abilities, and to be bragging about a win over NWT is grasping at straws. Not sure that I would agree with the south comment looking at the stats it appears that the only player from South who is performing well and consistently is Saren. And that certainly wouldn't be true for the last couple of years, last year the dynamic duo was Adonis Monfort and Matt Ellis 2nd Allstar team (both Calgary boys) Previous years, Jas Gill, (Calgary) Jordan White 2nd all star team (Calgary) Scott Lamb 2nd all star team (Calgary) Basketball Alberta needs to find away to get the talent to come out wherever they live.This year it is too bad for those players who will go down as being the worst team Alberta in recent history, and for the future groups coming up who will have to try and dig out of the hole that they left.

i agree, the program is very expensive. This year u16 base was $1500 plus another $150 then hotels in Edmonton a few times then a trip to vegas which was a complete waste of funds. we could have got a couple of canadian tournaments with twice as many games, only 4 in vegas.

hoops4all I do agree with the comment on the cost we have to find a way to make this more affordable for all. But there is the saying if you value something you are willing to pay for it. I get it a win over NWT big deal but i have seen many teams get in situations like we are in right now and just fold the tent so I am going to give our boys credit for staying strong and putting together a tremendous effort. Holding a team 17 points in a game is still a fantastic accomplishment lets keep it up. In regards to previous players I won't totally disagree but would say some of the success of those players had to do with the grittiness of the south kids. Are not Monfort and Ellis still U17 and if they were the dynamic duo from last year why are they not playing. The addition of the 5'8 guard over the red shirts is definitely a head shaker and based on your comments very disturbing. We do have to get this fixed basketball is suppose to be at a all time high with all the club programs and supposedly increased talent hope Basketball Alberta can take the lead and get this solved.

hoops4all wrote:

The problems with Basketball Alberta are many, this year has just highlighted most of them: there is no glory in playing for this province, it cost families a small fortune, takes most of their summer, while they are driving back and forth, between Edmonton and Calgary, billeting etc, If you are good enough to play at that level you should not have to pay, at all, they should be doing fundraising and sponsorship's at the corporate level, there is a lot of money in this province. Coaching is sub standard to say the least, no consistency from year to year, and no one willing to start running practices and tournaments before June, and the cp program is a joke. They are not visible you never see them outside of Edmonton. And maybe it is not such a good thing for your credibility when you replace at 6'7' post with a 5'8" guard whose father is a board member, who you cut originally, and give them the spot over the red shirts. This team is probably playing to the best of their abilities, and to be bragging about a win over NWT is grasping at straws. Not sure that I would agree with the south comment looking at the stats it appears that the only player from South who is performing well and consistently is Saren. And that certainly wouldn't be true for the last couple of years, last year the dynamic duo was Adonis Monfort and Matt Ellis 2nd Allstar team (both Calgary boys) Previous years, Jas Gill, (Calgary) Jordan White 2nd all star team (Calgary) Scott Lamb 2nd all star team (Calgary) Basketball Alberta needs to find away to get the talent to come out wherever they live.This year it is too bad for those players who will go down as being the worst team Alberta in recent history, and for the future groups coming up who will have to try and dig out of the hole that they left.

Wow I feel really sorry for this group of boys. unfortunately it looks like we couldn't come up with back to back solid efforts. This may go down as the worst team in Alberta Basketball history. Can someone please email the camera person and ask to stop showing the score we get it we stink. It may be over for this year but we will bounce back.

Unfortunately it will take 3-4 years for us to recover from this. Forget the fact that it will be next to impossible for Basketball Alberta to market the program as an elite one and a program of choice. Not a chance of getting the best kids from the club system to play for BA anymore. Because we finished 11th, we will be put in the pool against the toughest teams in Canada at next year's nationals. Just getting out of pool play in the upcoming years will be tough. We have a great U15 boys team but they are two years away. A good u15 group doesn't always become a good u17 group because kids stop growing and filling out. A lot of variables anyway. What is Basketball Alberta's next move. Unfortunately I think it's check mate against BA.

@hoops4allIf I'm not mistaken, the glory days with the glory players you mentioned weren't so glorious. The Adonis Monfort and Scott Lamb team (2010 U15 when Scott Lamb was a 2nd team Allstar) started as the 4th seed and went 1-4 with the only victory, a squeaker, against Newfoundland. They dropped out of the top 4.

The glory years of Matt Ellis (2011 U15 2nd team allstar) the team started in 5th and didn't improve, going 0-2 in the B pool against the 8th and 10th seeds beating only PEI and NFLD before beating Saskatchewan to stay in 5th and in pool B.

The Jasdeep Gill and Jordan Whyte team (2nd team all star U17 2011) started in 5th and went 2-3 but did improve slightly and finished 4th with wins against NB and Manitoba only to watch the Adonis Monfort/Scott Lamb team drop placing again in 2012 U17, starting in 4th but dropping to 5th and into the lower pool after going 2-3.

The last time we medaled in either U17 or U15 boys was in the Manny Arop, Jordan Baker, Dom Coward era 6 years ago.

Its true this result isn't good but Alberta hasn't been a real contender in a long time. Nobody in the past 5 years, especially players or their parents who decided not to play this year, should pretend that Alberta was all that competitive when they played, or would have been if they had played this year.

@hoopsnutWith regards to bouncing back, this result doesn't make it any harder to rebound next year than if we started in 5th or 6th. It will be difficult but its what almost all the previous teams the past few years have given the teams coming up behind them.

For Three what are you trying to say here. If you are saying we did have our best players on this team and this was the best we could do we probably should be really questioning our development programs because clearly we are falling behind the rest of the country. We can't and should not ignore this and trying to deflect that highlights the real issue we are facing the gate keepers with no understanding that continue to live in the past we need new solutions.

The comment was not meant to say that it was the glory days with those players, only to reply to the comment that we should be recruiting more south kids. I agree that the program hasn't been competitive for many years, and there are a number of factors for that, though as you pointed out they have at least been hanging around the middle of the pack until this year. Hopefully it is a wake up call and basketball Alberta starts doing the work to create an elite level program

Don't be surprised to see it getting a lot worse in this province before it gets better. Some of the problems are recruiting, commitment, cost, selection, expectations, and coaches.

Not every player in the province wants to play because there are other programs that compete for the player's time in July. And as long as the big club coaches discourage their players from participating and club programs are seen as better options than Team Alberta, it will stay that way. There is a lot money out there in spring league basketball in Alberta. No club wants to lose their best players at the expense of their program and their pocket book.

Almost all of these parents already pay for their child to play spring league. I know some families who support their child by putting them in these programs and travel with the team to cheer them on have put out as much as $10,000 in a single spring. Basketball Alberta is just as expensive because its basically the same thing. The problem is that it replaces the club program players' parents are already paying for. And really only for July and half of August.

Commitment to play basketball Alberta means travel all across the province every week, billeting, feeding other players and traveling to and from practices for a group of players daily for practice times that happen to be in your area. And it takes 3/4 of your summer which means little or no summer job, summer vacation time etc etc. Some parents aren't involved at all, making it more difficult for other parents who then do all the driving and billeting. And some parents live out of the way and are on their own for all travel. That is tough.

Expectations don't always match the experience. Playing time is not always communicated well by coaches. If you are the 9-12 guy on a team, you don't play much. Thats a lot to put out for very little court time at the National Tournament or even exhibition games leading up to those tournaments. Those same players are probably starters on their club teams and would play all the time in the July trips to AAU tournaments in the states. Red shirts/alternates pay 3/4 for practice only. What you give up for what you get for so much money and commitment doesn't really make a lot of sense. When expectations don't match experience, they tell one person who then tells one person and so on and so on. Recruitment gets tougher after that.

Selection will always be subjective. Generally I would say that Team Alberta teams all have the same type of player that show well at a try out. Teams need all kinds of players to be successful. Not all coaches see that. And not all coaches know how to coach outside the fundamental textbook version of what a coach should be, especially coaches who didn't play at a high level. It's obvious that not all coaches with level 2 or 3 or what ever the prerequisites are know how to coach. Coaches who have played at a very high level in the past, who had a high basketball IQ as a player that have transferred that same basketball IQ to coaching, who are good with these age groups of kids and their parents, and have experience coaching a ton of high level age group basketball with success are the guys we should be hiring. And they shouldn't be tied to a club program in any way because then they just pick their own players like last year. There are real political problems when coaches are getting paid by some players' parents outside of BA.

Just some of the problems that need to be addressed before BA turns any sort of corner.

I agree with "For Three" in his vision of the selection cretiria of a successful coach; but there are flaws. Doesnt the current Coach fit that same creteria. Mike Stevens played university and college ball and when he played he was known as having a average basketball IQ. Unfortunately this has not translated in him being a successful coach. I have had this discussion with many people and they always say "he won a national silver medal so he is a good coach." The majority of the time these people are people that are not in the know when it comes to basketball circles and after i finish talking to them and saying: yes, that years SAIT team won a silver medal but everyone in Calgary knew who was the real Head Coach of that Team and that was Ted Harrison. Harrison did all the coaching and Stevens stood there, much like he did throughout the Canada Games with his arms folded. Also, anyone who thinks he's a good coach just because he has been the coach at SAIT for a number of years needs to give their head a shake. Again everyone knows that the AD at SAIT is also the Head Coach of the Trojans Men's Hockey Program and he is only concerned about his team winning champiosnhips. Hence, if Steven's team was more of a threat, he probably would have his job anymore, but because the Trojans MBB is so bad there is no threat. I dont want my comments to look like I am anti Stevens because he's a good guy, but one must ask the question as to why and who in the hell decided to rehire him after his previous BA coaching stint. Also, it needs to be noted that his assistant coaches for BA are his same assistants from his SAIT MBB Program so this means BA hired an incapable coach and his incapable coaching staff and didnt even have the presence of mind to put someone on the bench that can camoflauge that lack of coaching ability of Stevens. Just because Stevens

To me the problem is the person or persons who have hired the last few handful of coaches are they are the ones who we should be questioning. Is there a selection crateria or is it just potpourri? In my oppinion this is the foudation of our problem and until BA lifts their blinds we will stay in thie rut. If BA actually decides to eliminate all biased, open the position, accept & review ALL applications from a the Province, acknowledge the accomplishments of all candidates, interview the candidates who have proven to successful through their resume and select the best coach that can not only coach but recruit; that is when you will see us start our climb back to medal contention. Teams like the team Baker was on do not come around anually, but a good coach will have the ability to field a roster that is well rounded - infused with talent and role players through salesmanship and hustle.

Trust me, the kids are gonna go where they believe a particular coach can and will make him or her better. In my oppinion, BA and the many Club Teams in this Province mean absolutely nothing with a good management team or administration and a good coach.

If anything good has come out of this is that BA is finally exposed for their baised, closed minded and backyard management methodologies whereas they hire these horrible coaches meanwhile there are many qualified coaches have applied only to not be considered.

You make is sound like there are a ton of people applying to coach these teams.

Does anyone know many coaching applicants there were for each of the 4 major teams this summer? (U17/U15 B & G) I've always been under the impression that it's been hard to get very many coaches to apply and commit to such a time consuming schedule and that there is very little compensation available. Is that completely wrong?